Black & Gold notes: October 4

Winners of three in a row and four of its last five, the Crew enters the weekend hungry for more points with three games remaining ... with a bye weekend (Oct. 12) approaching, the Black & Gold need to secure key points against Sporting KC ... following the bye weekend, the Crew opens a home-and-home series with New England to finish the regular season ... in a 12-game stretch from June 15 against Montreal through August 31 against Seattle, the Crew secured four wins for a total of 12 points, or an average of one point per game ... conversely, in this current stretch of five games under Interim Head Coach Brian Bliss, the Crew also has four wins (12 points), but is averaging 2.4 points per game.

A SEPTEMBER TO REMEMBER

It was a whirlwind first month for Interim Head Coach Brian Bliss, taking over on September 2 before coaching his first match two days later in the 2-0 win over Houston on September 4 at Crew Stadium ... the winds of change brought the Crew success in September as the team registered 11 goals and 11 assists, marking the first time since 1998 that the team had posted 10 or more goals or 10 or more assists in the month of September ... the victories last month also marked the first four-win September for the Crew since 2004 ... last October, the Crew went 1-1-1 and just missed the 2012 postseason, falling a point behind Houston for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

ANOTHER DEFENSIVE PERFORMANCE

Certainly the Crew would have had a tough time securing four wins in five matches without a stretch of strong defensive performances ... over the last five matches, the club has recorded two shutouts and allowed a single goal to the then-Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Impact ... the club’s only loss in that stretch allowed three goals to Sporting KC on September 7 ... despite that three-goal match, the Black & Gold backline has allowed an average of just 1.2 goals per game under Interim Head Coach Brian Bliss.